In a statement today, Corporate said the new ABC data for the six months ended Sept. 30 showed "improving" Sunday home delivery paid circulation at many of Gannett's daily newspapers, including 21 of U.S. Community Publishing's top newspapers.
"They include some of the company's largest circulation newspapers, including The Arizona Republic, The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Des Moines Register, South Carolina's Greenville News, The News Journal of Wilmington, Del., The News-Press of Fort Myers, Fla., and The Tennessean of Nashville,'' the statement says.
It's important to note that "improving" doesn't necessarily mean increases. The Republic, for example, saw its overall Sunday sales stay essentially flat, at 457,059 copies. But that's better than the industry's average decline of 6.5%. Also, in today's statement, Corporate is focusing on "home delivery paid circulation."
The Sunday trend follows Gannett's year-long effort, buttressing sales on that advertising-heavy day.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
13 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Jim,
ReplyDeleteTheir Sunday newspaper program is to deliver it for free to a quarter or a third of the total circa numbers.
For example, in Wilmington, Del, every Sunday different neighborhoods will have the Sunday paper delivered for free. They usually rotate it, so that once a month a wilmintonian will receive the NewsJournal for free.
Ditto Cincinnati. My neighborhood is targeted about every second or third week. All non subscribers receive a Sunday "special" edition. The papers lay on the sidewalks and driveways for days. I even joke with my walking partner..."watch for the next announcement by the Enquirer publisher gushing about the increase in Sunday circulation."
ReplyDeleteHere in Minneapolis, the Star Tribune posted an increase in Sunday circ. However, they accomplished that by axing the Saturday newsstand edition, replacing it with an "early Sunday edition" that has the coupons and pre-printed editorial content.
ReplyDeleteSo they gained 27,000 newsstand copies on Sunday, but lost 60,000 on Saturday.
Don't know if Gannett has been doing anything similar.
Corporate is focused on “home delivery paid circulation” because significant ABC rule changes that took effect October 1st, and in the coming months, will basically result in only paid home delivery and single copy sales counting as paid. “Bonus Day” copies which Cincinnati (at its peak counted 60k plus sampled copies a minimum of 52 plus times a year as paid) and other newspaper’s paid circulation numbers greatly benefited from will stop being counted as paid as will NIE copies, third-party sales, sponsored/bulk sales and employee and agent copies -- all will be counted as verified circulation; again, not paid. The outcome of all these rule changes will likely show significant drops in circulation numbers beginning with March 2011 reports. These changes also hold great ramifications for advertisers as they’ll find out what they’re really getting for their money.
ReplyDeleteCome on. Give me a break. Wilimington is not giving away a quarter to a third of their Sunday circulation for free. Do any of you work in Circulation departments and have first hand knowledge of what you're claiming?
ReplyDeleteSo many of you come on this blog and complain about cuts being made at Gannett. Here's an example where they have made an investment - and it's clearly working in several markets. The money is being spent on additional sales pressure and promotions. It's pretty amazing that they have figured out how to grow print circulation. Give them some credit for trying to grow the franchise.
Other sites may be doing some heavy discounting on Sunday, but I agree with 9:38. Wilmington continues to be the "we suck less" paper in regards to both circulation and advetising.
ReplyDeleteThe main problem has been the aggressive pricing the last two years. When you loose 15% to 30 % of your single copy circulation it looks very good on paper for a year. There is more revenue and newsprint savings. It takes about 15 months for the full affect. Now you have your low base and are explaining to advertisers why your numbers are down so much. These folks are not coming back to single copy so you try home delivery specials for $4.00 per month but you want be able to get all the customers back. Look at the product.
ReplyDeleteAccording to stories published this week in both The Cincinnati Enquirer and the Cincinnati Business Courier, the Enquirer's Sunday circulation dipped 1.1% to 255,037 during the past six months. Maybe they consider that a wash, who knows? Meanwhile, the daily dropped 6.5%, bringing circ to a low of 157,574. Add in the demise of the Cincinnati Post a few years ago, and the area has lost even more print readers than any of the numbers show.
ReplyDeleteWhen you have companies who will pull every trick in the book to maintain circulation, you get these bogus numbers. What about the thousands of newspapers that are still in the stores Sunday night? And the free copies laying in the street or dumped in a recycling bin?
ReplyDeletehttp://exposingnewspapers.blogspot.com/
9:38: My comment re the Cincinnati Enquirer is accurate and I am a former Circ dept employee. The sample copies, bonus copies, etc. have been used for years to shore up the paid numbers. Even with those tactics, the ABC numbers reported recently still show losses in both daily and Sunday. It gives me no pleasure to see the decline, but it is the reality.
ReplyDeletefor those who want proof of over-runs, link to this.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.shameongannett.com/page0045.htm
the Muncie Star story was a couple of years back. The Carriers of GCC/IBT Local 17m took the pics & sent a CD of them to Star advertisers. Some folks do more than wring their hands.
ReplyDeleteAny newspaper reporting circulation gains right now is simply playing games. They all spend excessive money on what I like to call "feel good starts". Half the new subscribers didnt even order the paper and the other half never intend to pay for it. The newspapers spend thousands of dollars on these sales either paying an outside sales source up to $50.00 per Sunday start or give away a gift to the subscriber of up to $50.00 for the start. Essentially the newspapers buy there own circulation. Nice huh? It's not to hard to grow circulation when you have the sales budget to do it.
ReplyDelete